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[VS] Rock, Planet, Shotgun: Outfit discussion & organisation

Message to new / prospective members who have found their way here:

Welcome. This thread is full of all sorts of information such as why we wear giraffe camo and why our leaders are called Balloons. It's a good place to post questions about the outfit, but you would be mad to try and read it all!

The best way to find out what we are about and what Planetside 2 offers is to just hop in and play with us. We will always welcome new people, and they can join in whenever. For details on how to setup Planetside 2 and MUmble communications, check out the stickied posts in these forums.
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Rock, Planet, Shotgun

[RPS] Is huge. Really huge. When I first started this thread we had grown to over 200 players in total and I thought we would need somewhere to properly discuss the outfit. We now have over 250 people active in the last week and over 800 total members.

This thread initially served as a catch all for all aspects of outfit organisation and discussion. We're too big to have just one thread for that, as can be seen by the numerous threads for specific issues that have become more common.

To that end, I have started a thread for "Purple Giraffes of Awesome" and will copy posts with existing awards there. I have also started a thread for outfit promotions and ranks, though I will keep old suggestions here.

This thread remains a place to discuss any goings on in the outfit in general. We still have a lot to talk about with those small issues removed from here. Feel free to start new threads for what seem to be bigger issues that need dedicated space, but most discussion can take place here.

Call to arms post below. Original post below that.
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WELCOME CALL TO ARMS FOLKS!
If you have come here from the RPS front page post, welcome.

You need to know one thing: Rock Planet Shotgun was created with one sole purpose. To provide a fun a friendly place for readers of Rock Paper Shotgun to play Planetside 2.

We have over 700 members, of which 130 are regular (log in at least once a week) and usually get about 40 people playing on every night of the week. If tomorrow is anything like last time, expect over 100 RPS players this Thursday "Call to Arms"!

We are also closely engaged with other outfits and so not only will you be playing alongside dozens of RPS readers you will be playing in coordination with hundreds of other players. This is the uniqueness of Planetside 2. Little else gets anywhere near this scale.

That being said, you shouldn't feel like a tiny cog in a big machine playing with us. For the Call To Arms event we will be playing in groups of 12. We work tactically, but do not expect the kind of mock-military nonsense you might find elsewhere.

We manage to strike a balance between being relaxed and friendly yet make an impact strategically and tactically. I don't know how we manage this and I try not to think about it too much just in case.. In any event we have fostered a playign environment I think we can rightly be proud of, and we're very happy to welcome you.

We have one rule. Be excellent to one another.

We are open to all skill levels. Please do not worry if you have never played PS2 or even an FPS before. We will have people on hand specifically to get people into and understanding the game.

How to play with us in 3 steps
1. Download Planetside 2 & Create a CharacterThe download is not insignificant. Get in running in advance of Thursday night if possible

For EU players go to:www.planetside2.euIt is advised that you do not download via Steam. There have been issues with the Steam version of the game with EU accounts in the past and it is not clear if these have been resolved

For Players with an existing SOE account:If you know you have an SOE account, go to:www.planetside2.com
OR
downlaod from Steam

Create a character for the Vanu Sovereignty empire on the Miller server.
(You may have to select "show all servers" in character creation.)

If you want to play the New Conglomerate faction, then our sister outfit Rock, Traitor, Shotgun should be happy to accommodate you. They play on the same server.

But you will be talked through everything that happens by people dedicated to explaining things to new players.

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Original post:

It is no secret that Planetside 2 is not the easiest and intuitive game to pick up. If you have played before but bounced off, please do try playing with us, it might make all the difference.

Ok, so, the Rock, Planet, Shotgun outfit is larger than I ever reasonably expected. Like, huge. Massive. Bloody absurd if you ask me. I thought there might be a couple of dozen of us bundling about shooting lasers, not over 200...

I fully expect turnouts to drop as the weeks go by and people realise PS2 is 'not for them', but it's no insubstantial base we've started with.

So, apart from needing somewhere to discuss & organise the outfit, a few questions:

I also realise that sometimes people like / deserve recognition for work being put in with fancy little stacked Vs. There's a bunch of you purple peeps putting in the effort (thanks!) and creating some excellent squad / platoon / general friendliness experiences. Is outfit ranking the best way to go about recognising this? (see also; below!)

2) More organised outings?
Wednesdays seem to have got brilliantly shambolic. This is a good thing. Loud, chatty, messy laser shoots are excellent.

That being said, some people have expressed a desire for something a bit more coordinated. Also; I spent 100 certs in that bloody command chat, I might as well do something with it.
So: Any desire to arrange some kind of "let's shoot lasers with a bit more attention to where we aim them" get together? If so, when? Regular? Ad hoc?

Finally:

Announcing the Purple Giraffe of Awesome Awards

Because people / we are awesome. Sometimes it's nice to recognise this.

Also, if you think about it, a giraffes silhouette is a bit like a thumbs-up. Which is a traditional way of indicating an appreciation of someone's awesome. Expect better. Because it's a purple giraffe. Obv.

Awarded for actions deemed awesome. Can be anything from leading vast platoons to neon drenched glory to being a particularly amusing drunk. Or just an outstandingly decent person. We like those.

Anyone can award this to anyone else in the outfit for any reason they like.

Directons: Google image search "purple giraffe". Choose one. Post it here with the intended recipient and why they are awesome.

As for everything else: I dont care about ranks and so on, but I think the platoons should be a bit more structured, and I think, to be honest, that they were too large last night. I think we could have gone for 3 and completely taken over huge parts of the map, instead of losing them shortly afterwards anyway.

Also, I think we should start forming squads by type; ie. infantry squads, vehicle squads, air squads. Though this obviously isnt always applicable; especially if you get shot down and have to wait a bunch for vehicle/resource respawn.

"Quantacat's name is still recognised even if he watches on with detached eyes like Peter Molyneux over a cube in 3D space, staring at it with tears in his eyes, softly whispering... Someday they'll get it."

Well, organisation in an online-game is pretty abhorrent to many people. But if some people crave more order, why not - isn't there a good compromise ? Put up an ordered structure, but reserve a squad or two for anyone who just wants to be given a target with not further interference 'from above'. Anyone who just wants to hop on to have some fun can then easily just sort themselves in there and have a go. And if even getting handed a 'take down the crown using spoons' order seems like to much stress on a particular evening, people might just take a break by doing their own thing.
If other squads feel the need for military precision, the can easily fit themselves into the structure as they see fit. Someone in the general Miller VS thread for example suggested an LA squad using Flashes for fast inserts, which sounds like it might need to be organized quite a bit. Anyone interested in that could just join that squad.

Ranks - I don't care if they come in or not. If people want or think it's useful to put another symbol on their name then cool.

Squads - I was the one talking about the LAs on flashes. I think if we have enough members we can very easily have squads of varying degrees of organization from "lets zerg and find adventure!" to "lets sneak around as a small squad and blitzkrieg the outer bases as a distraction". We can all work together anyway!

I think the comment about being too large is true. I don't think we have too many players, but I think we might have too many players in one place at one time. We should spread out, not too thinly, but enough that we're still powerful enough to hold a good fight, but not clumped up too much that we're just taking a base and moving on only to lose that base five minutes after we're gone.

Awarded to Cooper for organizing this whole thing and his "amazing" sundy driving skills

I am all for more organised events (not on wednesdays of course). I think with the current size, we should easily be able to put together at least one squad for any level of serious-business-ness with some before notice.

For ranks, i am not entirely sure. The Eve player of four years says 'Of course, without making clear who has proven that is able to lead a squad, someone will get us all killed.' Then again, this is not Eve Online and getting oneselves killed is the norm and has no big drawback.
So i believe they are not needed for organization, we do not need to designate responibilities because everybody can do everything with little to no risk. And i believe for people who want such responsibilities to be assigned, there are other outfits.
However, i think that they could be a nice way to acknowledge peoples work. If someone spends insane amounts of certs in creating the best sunderer possible and goes out of his way to make it available for forum-organized squads, some recognization does not hurt.
Or spends time to organize this whole mess, but i believe we cannot promote Cooper any further...
Have this instead:Stuffie+-+Purple+Giraffe+1.jpg

An unfortunate side-effect of Planetside 2's single-server character system (and uber-expensive weapon certs) means that there is almost no mixing betwee the European and American outifts, but I'd actually love if it we did the same thing with ranks, since I've been pondering the same question myself.

The question is, if you make everyone a member, what powers do you give to them? Obviously not the power to disband the outfit or kick people (but then, who can do the latter?).

An unfortunate side-effect of Planetside 2's single-server character system (and uber-expensive weapon certs) means that there is almost no mixing betwee the European and American outifts, but I'd actually love if it we did the same thing with ranks, since I've been pondering the same question myself.

The question is, if you make everyone a member, what powers do you give to them? Obviously not the power to disband the outfit or kick people (but then, who can do the latter?).

Im going to use a horrible word that nobody should use ever to explain something: if you use common sense for kicking people, all should be well.

what I mean by that is, though: if people are overly TKing, obviously working against you, maybe even joining as spies for other outfits (doubt this will bring anything, really). If for any reason they are not organised enough, Im sure just moving to another squad or platoon would do the trick, not really necessary to kick them out of an outfit.

However, something I omited, and I am proud to say the Perpetuum Online branch of RPS does very well is: be excellent to each other, also "your enemies". I would seriously kick people out of outfit if theyre talking crap about and to other players all the time. That is simply that which breeds dissent.

Or, we just let everyone in, no rules and have a grand fuckparty, both is honestly fine by me.

"Quantacat's name is still recognised even if he watches on with detached eyes like Peter Molyneux over a cube in 3D space, staring at it with tears in his eyes, softly whispering... Someday they'll get it."

I think Aerothorn has a point though. With that massive influx of new members, it would most likely be a good idea if at most time there was someone on who can kick people. Allthough it is easy to forget on RPS, this is still the internet. Should someone misbehave over the top, it would be a huge hassle to wait for Cooper to come online before it is possible to get rid of them. And i am pretty sure we have more than enough trusted regulars who would not abuse such powers.

Figurehead - Because games expect there to be one person in charge.Shouty people - People willing to be the voice that tells other people what to do, just so everyone else can see who is supposed to be giving the ordersUnwashed masses - Because deep down most of us just want to be grunts, tell me which direction to point my gun and I'll try not to shoot you in the back.

Having someone calling targets made last night the most fun I've had in the game, it felt like we had objectives rather than just following the guy in front (even though I did very little other than a bit of healing and a lot of falling over).

Totally missed this thread. Yes, I think we should have designated leaders for more organized outings pretty much every day - sporadic ones, not planned. One rank for platoon leaders, one rank for squad leaders, and another rank for all soldiers. This is to make them stand out and so that you know that that person is a leader and is up for the job. No more questions regarding who wants to lead.

I have somewhat of an anarchistic leaning as well, but in this game hierarchy and order can make the game much more enjoyable. I don't mean one dude shouting constantly above all others, but if we have one platoon leader and a few squad leaders those people have say over who does what. This could also be organized in mumble where squads are in their squad chat and the platoon leader speaks to all via linked channels.

Right now it can get messy when its about 30+ people on, as you have people trying to communicate in their area and everyone else talking about other stuff. It can also be hard for a leader to be heard.

Shall we take a list with people willing to lead then, that also are certed for it?

In terms of ranks I don't see a reason to go further than squad leader, platoon leader, leader - with ranks possibly changing prior to each organized outing - they would be more like functions not titles.

That way during the game there would be some organization when we need it and that beautiful back-shooting chaos on all the other occasions.

I very much like the idea of somewhat organized squads, e.g. the squad of Light Assaults and Infiltrators on Flashes tearing up enemy forts causing distractions simply sounds brilliant.

As for ranks and overall leadership, I'd have to agree with reyn78 - ranks could be like functions. If there is the need to be more organized, some people could be elevated to a "higher" position for that outing. Or something..shouldn't be forced though. In my opinion something similar has already been going on in Mumble - we seem to have people willing to go straight for strategizing moves and generally trying to make sense of the chaos that goes on in the game. That's awesome.

I very much like the idea of somewhat organized squads, e.g. the squad of Light Assaults and Infiltrators on Flashes tearing up enemy forts causing distractions simply sounds brilliant.

As for ranks and overall leadership, I'd have to agree with reyn78 - ranks could be like functions. If there is the need to be more organized, some people could be elevated to a "higher" position for that outing. Or something..shouldn't be forced though. In my opinion something similar has already been going on in Mumble - we seem to have people willing to go straight for strategizing moves and generally trying to make sense of the chaos that goes on in the game. That's awesome.

Btw, I see purple giraffes at work every day.

I think ranks should stay, so that when you log on randomly, you can tell who's a leader person who can then take charge. That would make random play amazing, as you'd always have a way of getting organized, and someone that actually wants to lead can do that.

As for just starting to strategize, I've done that a bit, and it was loads of fun and worked out okay. It's just that you can feel like a bit of a dick saying hey I wanna lead, especially when you're new. I just spoke up since no one else did, and then it worked out that way. It seems like people generally do not want to lead as well, and this could perhaps be a reason why.

Personally, I'd prefer to be one of the "Unwashed Masses" as I'm better at following orders than giving them..

Given the numbers we have (at the moment), it should be up to the PLs to assign objectives on a tactical level, with the OGF designating overall strategy.

For facilities with a single cap point the platoon moves as 1 unit, but for multiple cap points each squad is given it's own objective (Alpha to point A, Bravo to point B, Charlie to point C, and Delta possibly acting as a reserve supporting whichever squad is meeting stiff resistance).

Armour and Air cover should be sorted on a per platoon basis. At the moment we tend to have too many sunderers per squad (2 , sometimes 3 at a time), when the 2nd driver would be better as armour or air cover.

Platoon make up should be organised a bit more so that an adequate number air and armour specialists are available to each platoon. Infantry should be free to select which ever class is most useful to their squad as current conditions require at that point in time.

In Feldspar's cateogrisation, I'm probably one of the shouty people. Having a little more organisation would be preferable for me. Not at the expense of fun, but having squad roaming as squads and working together would be great. The idea of leading a dedicated squad of Light Assaults into battle is very exciting*

*Also, I'm lousy behind a gun, but not bad at having an idea of the bigger picture.